The Nanny: A Single Dad Romance Read online

Her expression makes me blush. “That’s all right. I know she would love that, too, but the library would do her good. I’ve kept her too close to home. I was trying to protect her from Jade, but after the way she keeps showing up here, I’m sure Ivy is just as safe in town.”

  “That’s great. We’re going to work on the ant farm design today, so maybe another day. Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? We could really use you.”

  I shift from one foot to the other. She can’t mean this. “It’s nice of you to say so, but I have to get to work.”

  “Maybe you could take a day off sometimes,” she suggests, “and we could always do things together on the weekends. You don’t work then.”

  I frown. “You want to do things on the weekends? Don’t you want to go out on your own then?”

  She shrugs. “I don’t mind doing things with you. If it means all three of us doing something together, I’m happy to hang out with you and Ivy. I can get out on my own anytime.”

  I nod one more time, but I can’t get my mind to work. She’s blowing me away. She can’t really mean she wants to spend her days off here, hanging around with me and Ivy. No nanny does that. Most of ‘em can’t wait to get as far away from us as they can.

  “We can talk about this another time,” I tell her. “I’m just glad you’re here, and not because I have to go to work now. I’m glad Ivy has someone she cares about and likes.”

  She touches my arm again. Does she know what she’s doing, or is it automatic? Either way, it’s pretty nice. I don’t mind it at all. “Have a good day at the office. I guess we’ll see you later.”

  I should go, but I don’t want to leave. The two of them look so cozy there together, so happy. I would love to spend the day hiking around the estate with them, looking at bugs and drawing leaves.

  What’s the point of being CEO of a multi-billionaire company if I can’t take the day off every now and then—or all the time, for that matter? What would my life be like if I spent as much time with Ivy as I really want to?

  I back away. “I’ll see you guys at lunch time. Have a good day.”

  Kira flashes me her smile all lit up, and I hurry out of the room. I race down the stairs two at a time and rev the car, but when I hit the expressway, I roll down my window and let the breeze blow through my hair.

  What’s happening to me? Why does seeing Kira smile excite me so much? Why am I so happy she decided to stay? She would never decide to stay for me. I understand that. She almost quit because of me, and she decided to stay for Ivy.

  That’s all right. I don’t mind playing second fiddle, as long as I can see that smile on her face every now and then. I could dare to believe something I said or did put it there.

  What am I thinking? I can’t be thinking about Ivy’s nanny that way. Besides, Kira’s with someone. She could never feel anything for me. I’m her boss—nothing more. I’ve got to get my thoughts straightened out before I get to the office. I can’t spend the day thinking about what she and Ivy are doing together back home. I also don’t want to spend the day thinking about Kira at all.

  They’re playing cards now. After they have a morning snack, they’ll pack up Ivy’s science kit of magnifying glass, notebook and pencil, and maybe a plant identification book. They’ll start out going to Rex’s shed to plan their ant farm. Then they’ll go into the woods and see what they can find.

  Thinking about doing things with them gives me a strange thrill. It thrills me the way my business used to thrill me when I was younger. I couldn’t wait to get out there and make the next buck.

  Now I don’t want to be anywhere but out there with Kira—and Ivy, of course. The three of us would go for rambles. Ivy would show me all the little details of moss on fallen logs. Kira would help us identify every tree and leaf. We would have so much fun, we couldn’t wait to do it again tomorrow.

  I would glance over Ivy’s head at Kira. She would light up the whole world with that smile. She would lower her eyelids and look away, but when she stole a peek and caught me watching her, she would blush and lose her concentration.

  No, she wouldn’t, because she would be too distracted by what it would be like to be Mrs. Parker Lynch. Heck, she probably would be Mrs. Parker Lynch by that time.

  Does Parker know what a treasure he’s got in her? Of course, he does. That’s why he’s so hot to marry her. He wants her for himself, and I don’t blame him. I would do exactly the same thing if I was in his place. I would marry her as soon as I could scoot her rear end to the altar.

  No, I wouldn’t! What am I thinking? I wouldn’t marry Kira or anybody else. I’ll never getting married again as long as I live. I could never face the possibility another woman would wind up like Jade.

  I park in my private parking space under the building, but when I stride through the doors and ride the elevator to my floor, I can’t stop smiling at everybody. I greet everyone that passes. Holy jumping junipers, what’s wrong with me? I’m usually the Terror of the Seven Seas, with secretaries running for cover at my approaching footsteps.

  Even that thought makes me laugh. I’ll have to pull myself together and get mad about something pretty soon, or they’ll be calling the goon squad to come and take me away.

  I get to my office and check my messages. We’ve got a major tech meltdown in progress with mainframes and servers and email on the blink, but nothing can dampen my enthusiasm. Life is looking rosy.

  What did this to me? I don’t even have to ask. I’ve got someone I can trust taking care of home. I don’t have to worry about Jade throwing a wrench in the works anymore, because Ivy is safe and happy. She’s not lonely. She’s not hating her nanny and wishing she would go away.

  I sit down in my chair and lean back. I swivel around to gaze out the windows. I could get used to this. All I need is a fat cigar to smoke, and I’d be happy as a pig in clover.

  My computer pings a notification, and I swing around to check it when Connor strolls through my door. I jerk my chin at him. “Hey, man. How’s it hanging?”

  “Did you know Accounting lost a bunch of files in cloud storage?”

  My eyes shoot up. “No, I didn’t. I knew the rest of the computer system was down. They must have been too terrified to tell me about that.” I can’t help chuckling at the thought.

  Connor stops in the middle of my office to stare at me. “What’s going on with you?”

  “Nothing, man. Why do you ask?”

  He cocks his head and gives me the once-over. “Aren’t you the least bit mad about the tech apocalypse?”

  I laugh at his joke. “That’s a good one. Did you make that up on the way over here? You should write it down.”

  His eyes fall out of their sockets. “What in the world has gotten into you, man? I haven’t seen you like this in….well, I can’t remember when I’ve seen you like this.”

  “Like what?” I ask.

  He waves his hand up and down in front of me. “Like happy. I wouldn’t call you happy, but you sure look like it from here. What happened? Did you finally get laid after all these years? Did you get yourself a nice hooker and shell out to get your rocks off? I can’t think of any other explanation.”

  I bite back a smile. “No, man, I didn’t get laid. I’m just as frustrated as I ever was.”

  He smacks his lips. “Now I know there’s something going on. That’s the first time in over ten years I’ve heard you admit out loud you were frustrated.”

  “Come on, man,” I chide. “It’s not as bad as all that.”

  “It’s as bad as all that and much worse,” he returns. “You’ve been an absolute fiend for years. You’ve had everyone in this company quaking in their boots, and now here you come cracking jokes and not caring that the computer mainframe is going supernova and there’s nothing anybody can do about it.”

  “If there’s nothing anybody can do about it,” I point out, “what’s the point of losing the plot over it?”

  He points into my face. “That is exactly what I’m
talking about. You would never say anything like that before. Something must have happened. Now spill it before I’m forced to take serious action.”

  I can’t stand him staring at me like that. I launch out of my chair and pace around the office. “Nothing happened, man. You can take my word for it. I was just on my way into work this morning, and I stopped by Ivy’s room, and she was sitting on the floor playing cards with Kira, and she…”

  Connor’s head snaps up. “Kira? What about her?”

  “Nothing, man. I was just about to tell you she’s planning on helping Ivy build a new ant farm.”

  “Kira is?”

  “Who else? They’ve got it all planned out, and Kira said she thought I ought to…”

  Connor goes very still and silent. His eyes drill into my face. “What about Kira?”

  I can’t stop pacing. Just talking about this stuff fills me with an energy that won’t sit still. “I’m trying to tell you. Kira told me she thought I ought to help them out—like I’d be a big help—but she said she thought I ought to do it with them, that she could show me what to do, and that it would bring me and Ivy closer together. She’s got all kinds of ideas, you know?”

  I happen to glance over and see him glaring at me. I don’t know what that look means, but I don’t like it. I never want to see my best friend looking at me like that.

  “Anyways,” I say, “it’s just got me thinking. There’s all kinds of stuff I’d love to do with Ivy and….I mean, with Ivy, if I could only get out of this stuffy old office. It made me think maybe I should take a step back, make myself redundant, you know? Isn’t that what washed-up CEOs like me are supposed to do?”

  He doesn’t answer my questions. He just stands there still as a statue. He doesn’t even blink.

  I come to a stop in front of him. I’ve known and loved this man too long to let anything fester between us for long. Whatever’s bothering him, I have to find out what it is. Is he jealous that I’m happy all of a sudden?

  I’ve heard of this. When one person is down and the other person helps them along, all of a sudden the second person isn’t happy when the first person starts feeling better. Connor’s too solid to do something like that, isn’t he?

  “What’s the matter, man?” I ask. “Aren’t you happy that I’m happy?”

  He doesn’t smile. He doesn’t make a joke out of it like he usually does. He actually frowns. He never frowns. “So you plan to do stuff with Ivy and Kira now? Is that what you’re gonna be doing when you make yourself redundant?”

  Now it’s my turn to frown. My spider sense goes on high alert. “You don’t want me doing things with Ivy and Kira?”

  The instant I say her name, a shot goes through him like a thunder clap. It’s that name: Kira. That’s what caused this.

  I meet his eyes, and a spark of recognition passes from him to me and back again. We both understand at the same moment. He wants her. He’s sweet on Kira, and….and so am I. I don’t want to make myself redundant to spend more time with Ivy. I’ve had years to do that.

  I wouldn’t work on the ant farm and go for science walks to be with Ivy. I would do it to be with Kira, to spend time with her and to gaze into her eyes over Ivy’s head.

  The truth hits me like a ton of bricks. I want Kira. I want her bad. I want her to share all the days and all the troubles of raising a child, and Connor wants that, too. He’s hooked on her.

  He sees the same thing in me. We both want the same woman. I shrug at nothing and steal a glance toward the window before looking back at him. “Anyway, it could never happen. She’s got a fella already.”

  Connor shrinks before my eyes. “She does?”

  I nod. “She’s almost engaged to him.”

  A cloud crosses his face. “Oh. Well, that’s it then, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah.”

  He doesn’t take his eyes off my face, and I don’t see the old happy-go-lucky charm anywhere. His eyes smolder, and he clenches his jaw when he looks at my face. He’s not hostile toward Kira’s fella. He doesn’t know anything about him. He’s hostile toward me. He’s my oldest friend, and we’ve both got it bad for the same woman.

  I have to diffuse this tension somehow. I have to get back to the place we used to be, but how can that ever happen? How can I erase knowing he wants Kira, and how can I erase the knowledge from his mind that I want Kira?

  I stroll around my desk and sit down in my chair. Now I’m looking up at him from the level of his navel. He towers over me. He always has, with his long legs and angular frame, but now it’s ten times worse. I’ve always been the dominant one. Now I’m deliberately submitting to him. “Are you going back down to Accounting?”

  He shudders down his body and shakes himself awake. He casts his eyes down at my desk. “Yeah, man. I am. Are you coming?”

  “In a little while. I’ve got to get the apocalypse under control first.”

  He nods, but he doesn’t smile. He turns around and walks out of my office like he didn’t hear a word I said.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Kira

  Ivy and I get back from our first trip to Rex’s shed. Ivy is bouncing off the walls and talking a mile a minute. “Did you see all the different screwdrivers he had? The wood smells wonderful. I can’t wait to learn every tool and what it does. Tell me again where you learned all this.”

  I smile at her, but I can’t help glancing at the clock on her bedroom wall. Eleven-thirty in the morning. Isaac said he would be back at lunchtime. That’s in half an hour. What will seeing him again be like?

  I can’t even think about Isaac without getting butterflies in my stomach, and these aren’t the dread butterflies I felt before I knew what was going on with him. I’m not afraid of him anymore. I’m excited to see him.

  My efforts to talk to him this morning went so well, I can’t wait to try to talk to him again. He just needs kindness and understanding. That’s all. He’s been living without them for so long, I know he’ll come around once he starts to get them.

  He cut himself off from people. He doesn’t want to get close to them for fear they’ll screw him over the way Jade did. I can be the one to show him it doesn’t have to be like that.

  Helping him is one thing. I shouldn’t feel this thrilling heat in my guts at the thought of seeing someone I want to help.

  I keep up my end of the conversation so Ivy doesn’t notice anything while one eye hovers around the clock. Eleven-thirty-five. Eleven-forty. Eleven-forty-five.

  I’ve got to get myself together. I can’t keep counting down the minutes until Isaac shows up. How did I turn into a nervous teenager around my own boss?

  All at once, my phone rings. My nerves are already shot, and I gasp out in surprise at the sudden sound. I fish it out of my pocket and check the screen. It’s Isaac. What’s he phoning me for when he already said he would see me—I mean, us—at lunch time? “Hello?”

  “What did I tell you?” he bellows down the line. “How many times do I have to put up with this crap before the whole world gets the stinkin’ message? What did I ever do to deserve this? That’s what I’d like to know. I swear the whole world gets together behind my back to torment me with this nonsense.”

  I freeze in my tracks. What did I do wrong this time? This morning went so well, and now he’s spitting and raving as bad as ever. I must have been all wrong about him. He’ll never change. He’s a rager. That’s all there is to it.

  I take a deep breath to defend myself against this latest attack. I’ll just tell him point blank I’m leaving. The cook or the butler can keep an eye on Ivy until he gets home from work.

  He interrupts me before I get a chance to say anything. “Jade’s moving in again. I just got a call from her lawyer. She’s taking me to court again to get visitation rights to see Ivy unsupervised.”

  “Oh, no!” I groan.

  “I’m worried she’ll pull another stunt like she did the other day. If she gets Ivy alone, she’ll try to abduct her again.”

&
nbsp; I square my shoulders. No wonder he flew off the handle. “It’s all right, Isaac. I’ll keep an eye on Jade. I won’t let Ivy out of my sight.”

  “I can’t come home for lunch,” he tells me. “I’ve got to interrupt work and race downtown to see my lawyer so we can file for an emergency restraining order against Jade. I’m sorry to throw this on you, but you’ve got to stick it out alone with Ivy for the rest of the day. If Jade shows up at the house….”

  “Don’t worry about anything, Isaac,” I break in. “I can take Ivy out somewhere Jade will never find her. Ivy’s been chomping at the bit to go to the library. I’ll keep Ivy out of the house all day until you get home from work.”

  A silence follows on the other end of the phone, and when he speaks, his tone changes. “Would you do that?”

  “Of course. Keeping Ivy safe is my job. I’ll take her to the library, and we’ll stay out until tonight. Don’t think about it anymore. You concentrate on your end and leave Ivy to me. Don’t give it another thought.”

  A shuddering breath sounds in the receiver. “Thank you, Kira. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

  “Go to the lawyer. I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Ok. Thanks.”

  He hangs up. I stare down at my phone. I was looking forward to seeing him at lunchtime, but this is something so much bigger and deeper and more important, I’m almost glad he didn’t come.

  Everything changed in that one phone call. We’re working together now. This is the best way I can help him. I’m still staring at the phone when Ivy comes in from the bathroom. “Who was that?”

  I take a deep breath and put my phone away. “It was your dad. He said he thinks it would be a lot of fun if we went to the library and get some new books for you. What do you say? We can work on the ant farm either when we get back or another day.”

  She hoots with glee. She jumps up and down. The ant farm project falls to the floor, forgotten.

  “Come on and get your shoes on,” I tell her. “We’ll catch the subway.”

  Her eyes pop out of her head. “Do I really get to ride the subway?”